Seedfinanzierung für Medizintechnik Start-up ReFlow Therapeutics

ReFlow Therapeutics AG (“ReFlow”) announced that the Company closed it’s oversubscribed seed financing round raising an undisclosed single digit million Swiss Francs amount.

ReFlow is developing the first diagnostic and therapeutic medical system for overcoming micro-vascular obstruction (MVO), blockage in the very small blood supply vessels within the affected heart muscle in heart attack patients. Around 50% of all the patients receiving a stent after a severe heart attack have partially or completely occluded microcirculation despite optimal blood flow through the stent. These patients have more than double the mortality compared to patients with restored myocardial microvascular flow and have a substantial higher short- and long-term complication rate.

Erik Amble, who joins the ReFlow Board of Directors, said: “I look forward to working with the ReFlow management team to develop a new approach for patients with microvascular obstructions which is a very large yet unmet medical need in modern interventional cardiology. Since the introduction of coronary stenting more than 30 years ago, the MVO problem remains an unsolved problem. ReFlow has a unique approach to help patients suffering from MVO.” The ReFlow seed investors are professional medical device investors, distributors, and key-opinion-leaders in interventional cardiology across Europe, the US, China, Latin-America and Japan. These individuals and organisations have over the last decades brought advanced cardiology products to market.

ReFlow is founded by renowned interventional cardiologists and medical device entrepreneurs with a life long dedication to medical device innovation. ReFlow has completed it’s proof-of-concept trials at the University Hospital of Zürich and filed provisional patent applications in Europe and the United States.

The CEO and Co-Founder of ReFlow, Jon H. Hoem, commented: “We are very excited to start developing this breakthrough technology which potentially can help many thousands of heart attack patients every year. The ReFlow team looks forward to working with the world-wide interventional cardiology community to bring new solutions to a patient group that so far has been underserved.”

ReFlow now enters the phase of console and catheter development which will be substantiated by preclinical trials to generate data for its regulatory design dossiers. The Company targets to complete these development steps over the next two years and will provide regular updates on the progress of the Company.

In some severe heart attack patients (STEMI), the whole left ventricular wall is not perfused (“no-reflow”) as shown on this MRI image above. However, thrombus formed in these patients is porous and can be dissolved. Micro-vascular obstructions and “no-reflow” are created by thrombus and other effects which reduce the blood flow in the coronary microcirculation. The ReFlow technology seeks to diagnostically determine the root cause of MVO and then treat the tissue accordingly. In patients where the micro-channels are blocked by thrombus, it can be dissolved by using intracoronary infusion of different approved drugs such as anti-thrombotic agents. The ReFlow TherapyTM will enable the wash-out of the thrombi and a real-time monitoring of the microvascular status. Based on the improved myocardial microcirculation, the therapy will be adjusted while the patient is still in the cathlab. The ReFlow TherapyTM will not interfere with the normal workflow for severe heart attack patients nor require additional skills by the interventional cardiologists.